The United Kingdom uses two separate admission processes for undergraduate and postgraduate degrees courses. In addition, the Open University has an open door policy. The United Kingdom has a centralised system of admission to higher education at undergraduate level; namely, The Universities and Colleges Admission Service (UCAS). Generally, students are accepted onto a particular programme of study as opposed to being accepted by the university or college as a whole.
During the first academic term (September to December) of the final year of school or in sixth form college, at the age of seventeen, eighteen or after having left school, applicants enrol onto the UCAS website and choose five programmes of study at a higher education organisation. Fewer choices are permitted for the competitive subjects such as medicine and veterinary
medicine. If the applicants are still at school their teachers will give them their predicted grades for their A-level, Higher or IB subjects. Students will use these grades to apply for courses and provisional offers may be made on the basis that these results are achieved. If the applicant has already left school, they will provide their results with their application.
Applicants must provide a personal statement describing in their own words why they want to study that particular subject and why they would be a committed student; in addition, their school must supply an academic reference. Some universities, such as Oxford, Cambridge, Manchester and the Imperial College, and universities such as King's College London or the University College London, and some disciplines such as medicine, routinely require shortlisted candidates to attend an interview and complete special admissions tests before the decision is made to make an offer. Otherwise, the reference and personal statement are decisive, as many students are likely to apply to competitive programmes with similar predicted and actual grades (Badran, 2014).
Generally, applications have to be received mid-January for study programmes that begin the following autumn. However, the application period starts earlier in mid-October and lasts for three months for a medical, dentistry or veterinary programme, or any programme at Oxbridge (The Universities and Colleges Admission Service (UCAS)). The applicant will receive notification of the outcome of their application for each programme directly from the institution; this will be a rejection, conditional offer or unconditional offer. A conditional offer means that the student can only take up the place on the programme if they achieve the stated conditions of the offer, which is usually the accomplishment of specific grades in their examinations.
In cases where no offer is made or the applicant does not want to accept the offer they receive, students can apply for other courses via ‘UCAS+’. However, this process only allows students to apply for one course at a time. When an offer is received, whether through the initial application or through UCAS+, the applicant then selects two programmes of study and indicates their first and second choices.
If the conditions of the first choice offer are met, the applicant might attend this programme. If the applicant only achieves the conditions of their second (insurance) choice, they may only attend this course. If the applicant does not achieve the entry requirements needed for their first and second choices, they will not be offered a place on either course. However, they then have the option of applying for courses through the ‘clearing’ system. This system involves calling other
universities to discuss their options and establish which courses they are eligible to apply to. They may then choose to apply for other courses at different universities. Many students successfully find a place using this route (The Universities and Colleges Admission Service (UCAS), 2013).
Ultimately, it is each individual university’s decision whether or not to offer a place to an applicant. These decisions are made based on a number of factors but primarily, places are offered based on the predicted grades of school leaver examinations. As more applicants are accomplishing higher grades in the A standard examination, most universities also use secondary admission measures. These may include GCSE results or standard grade examination results, the references provided with the application and the information provided on the personal statement.
In many instances the personal statement can be the deciding factor between similar candidates and, as a result, services that provide false or manufactured personal statements to students for a fee are becoming prevalent across the UK. Thus, UCAS uses ‘similarity detection software’ to identify these false personal statements which have been written by third parties, Moreover, if detected, universities are likely to reject applications for this reason (The Universities and Colleges Admission Service (UCAS), 2013).
Personal statements can describe why the applicant wants to study the subject they have applied for and give the reasons why they believe they are a suitable candidate to study at degree level. It will also include any work experience they have acquired, their extracurricular procedures and any other relevant information. This is the best way for admissions tutors to get a good overall impression of what a candidate is really like and assess their commitment to the subject.(The Universities and Colleges Admission Service (UCAS), 2013)
Besides the information provided on the UCAS form, some universities request candidates to attend an interview. Interviews give the admissions tutors another opportunity to evaluate the candidate's suitability for the course (The Universities and Colleges Admission Service (UCAS), 2013). Oxford and Cambridge universities will always interview the applicants they are considering making an offer to. However, having already filtered out the majority of potential candidates, other universities might select to interview, though only in some subjects and on a much smaller scale.
Universities are being put under increased pressure from central government to accept people from a wide range of social backgrounds. However, in reality, an applicant’s social background can be evaluated primarily by the kind of school attended, as information pertaining to income and background is not requested on the UCAS form.
A significant contributory factor as to whether or not an offer is made relates to the level of competition for a specific course. Indeed, with the most sought after and competitive courses, the less likely an offer will be made; thus, the stronger the application must be. In fact, less than 10% of applications for the most competitive courses will be offered a place. Conversely, however, with the less competitive universities, practically all applicants receive an offer of admission (The Universities and Colleges Admission Service, (ACAS), 2013).
The significance and relevance of an applicant’s extracurricular activities and work experience will not be enough to guarantee an offer if the admission tutor does not think the candidate is academically capable of completing the course. Moreover, students applying for courses in medicine are expected to have undertaken extensive work experience in a suitable field in order to demonstrate their commitment to the course of study.
A well-qualified candidate applies under UCAS for five competitive courses; however, only 10% of the most highly qualified candidates will be accepted. This means that applicants only have a 40% chance of receiving at least one offer of a place. In another example, if five less competitive courses each have a 33% acceptance rate are selected, the chance of getting one offer is more than 85% at least. This shows that a strategy for promoting the chance of getting at least one offer, to perhaps 70%, is indicated even to well qualified candidates. (The Universities and Colleges Admission Service, (UCAS)) For postgraduate entry, all applications are made directly to the university or college. Students can apply for as many courses as they wish (Wikipedia, 2013).
Thus, within the UK, the student is referred to UCAS as a mechanism to provide a single entry point for students, This is near to be a centralised system of admission to higher education at undergraduate level which is ‘the Universities and Colleges Admission Service (UCAS)’. This means that the UK university admissions systems is effective as it saves time, effort and money. This admissions system in the UK is different from the admission system in some ways from Arab countries such as Egypt, UAE and Jordon.
Under the UK system, the applicant receives a response from the university or college advising them of their rejection, or of a conditional or unconditional offer. In Arab countries, however, the applicant receives a response from the central organisation advising them of their acceptance into a specific college. In addition, some UK universities require candidates to attend an interview whereas in the Arab countries, some universities want candidates to attend an interview or a test. The UK admissions system is not appropriate for implementation in the KSA because of the reasons previously mentioned.
However, the Universities and Colleges Admission Service (UCAS) is not totally centralised admission process and it is not suitable for applying at the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.